Jigme Singye Wangchuck

The first meeting of the seven-nation South Asian Assn. for Regional Cooperation concluded Sunday with leaders failing to discuss the most controversial issue in the 1-billion population territory: the nuclear race between India and Pakistan.

Bhutanese consider Jigme Singye Wangchuck to be a people's king, yet he has absolute power. He's his own prime minister, controlling a government of technocrats. The National Assembly has lively debates, but the king sets the nation's agenda because there is no democracy in Bhutan. The king's goal is to cautiously modernize the once-feudal nation while protecting its Buddhist culture and pristine environment from foreign influences.

The captain of one of the world's most remote basketball teams was having a bad day. Nothing, it seemed, was going right: His shots were caroming off the rim, he had taken a couple of elbows to the ribs and his team was losing late in the game.

Paul Larkin of Boston dropped by the queen's birthday parade, hoping to add a spot of pageantry to his tour of Britain. Perhaps he would even catch a distant glimpse of a royal. Suddenly, there was Her Majesty herself. "We just wanted to see the queen, and she was right there in front of us," the 32-year-old financial manager said.

Three decades after opening to the outside world, Bhutan, the tiny Himalayan kingdom in the clouds, has one foot in the Middle Ages and the other in the 21st Century. Long shielded from the rest of the world by the Himalayas, landlocked Bhutan is wrapped in mountains and wedged between two giants, China and India. About the size of Switzerland, it is a sparsely settled country of about 700,000 people that is scarcely touched by the modern age.

The first summit meeting of South Asian leaders--including two kings, two generals, two presidents and a prime minister--convened here Saturday to launch the world's newest regional group, the seven-nation South Asian Assn. for Regional Cooperation. India, the largest and most developed of the countries, quickly emerged as the key force in the new political and trade bloc.

What can seven of the world's poorest nations, whose bilateral ties run the gamut from friendship to enmity, do to better those relations and their citizens' lives too? In the Himalayas, 7,250 feet above sea level, ensconced comfortably in Simla, once the hot-weather capital of India's former British rulers, leaders from the South Asian Assn. for Regional Cooperation pondered and discussed that question Wednesday. The association turns 10 this year.

Facing half a dozen men wearing their traditional swords of office, Budhi Man Mongar sweated slightly. Then he stepped forward in district court to make the biggest change of his life. Carefully, the 43-year-old farmer affixed his fingerprint to thick documents permitting him to sell eight acres in the steep Himalayan foothills to the Bhutanese government. A few minutes later, under the glare of a videocam team's lights, he pocketed his payment--the equivalent of nearly $10,000.

World Travel Watch is a monthly report designed to help you make judgments about travel throughout the world. Because conditions can change overnight, always make your own inquiries before you leave home. In the United States, contact the nearest passport agency office; abroad, check with the nearest American Embassy. ASIA Bhutan: By decree of 34-year-old king Jigme Singye Wangchuck, everyone must wear traditional attire in public. The decree is part of a program to revive Bhutanese culture.

Once every two years, King Jigme Singye Wangchuck climbs into his Land Cruiser and heads out to meet his people. Often, his four wives and some of his 10 children go along, but there's hardly any security. In dozens of local meetings during the biannual ritual, the 42-year-old king of Bhutan and his ministers discuss the latest development plans and decide where to build a bridge, a clinic, a school.